St. Landry democrat., 1887-02-12

and was too mean and too dishonest to
pay for it; Thomas Paine, the adored
of modern inideity; Thomas Paine, who
| stole another mans wife in England and
brought her to this land; Thomas Paine,
who was so squalid, and so loathsome, and
so drunken and so profigate, and so beast
| ly in his habits sometimes picked out Of
the ditch sometimes too filthy to be picked
out; Thomas Paine one would have
thought that he could have been depended
on for steadfastness against this great de-
fusion. But no. In his dying hour he begs
the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy.
| Powerful delusion, all-conquering delu-
sion, earthquakng deluson of the Chris
tian religion Yea, it goes on, it is so i'm
pertinent ard it is so overbearing, this CHI
mera of the Gospel, that having conquered
the great picture galleries of the world,
| the old masters and the young mas tiers, as
/ showed in a former Sc rmon, it is not sat-
| isfied until it has conquered the music OF
the world. Look over the programme of
| that magnificent musical festival few
! years ago in New York and see what were
the great performances, and learn that the
greatest of all the subjects were
religious subjects. What was it one night
when three thousand voices were accom-
| panied with a vast number of instruments!
"Israel in Egypt" Yes, Beethoven de-
| luded until he wrote the high mass in d
! major. Haydn deluded with this religion
until he wrote the "Creation." Handel de-
| luded until he wrote the oratoriOs: "Jeph-
thah," and Esther" and SAUL" and
"Israel in Egypt" and the Messiah" On
the closing night 5000 deluded people sing
ing of delusion to eight thousand deluded
| hearers.
! Yes, this chimera of the Gospel not
| satisfied until it goes on and builds Itself
! into the most permanent architecture, SO
it seems as if the world is never going to
get rid Of it. What are some of the finest
| buildings in the worlds st. PauPs, St.
Peters, the churches and cathedrals of all
Chrlstendom. Yes, this impertinence Of
the Gospel this vast delusion, is not salts
| fed until it projects itself, and in one year
gives, contributes, S6,25O000 to foreign
MISSIONS the work of which is to
make ounces and fools on the other
side of the world-people we have
never seen. Deluded doctors-220 physi-
clans meeting week by week in London, IN
the Union Medical Prayer Circle, to
worship God. Deluded lawyers-the late
Lord Cairns, the highest legal authority in
England, the ex-adviser of the throne,
spending his vacation in preaching the
Gospel of Jesus Christ to the poor people
of Scotland; Frederick I. Frelinghuysen,
once the Secretary of State of the United
States, an old-fashloned evangelical minis
ter, and elder in the Reformed Church;
John Bright, deIuded Quaker; Henry
Wilson, the Vice President of the United
States, dying deluded Methodist or Con-
gregationalist; Earl of Kintore dying
"a deluded Presbyterian. The canni-
balls in South Sea, the bushmen of
Terra del Fuego the wild men of Austria
| liza, putting down the knives of their
cruelty, and clothing themselves in decent
apparel-all under the power of this de-
lusion. Judson and Doty, and Abeel and
Campbell and Williams and the three
thousand missionaries of the cross, turn
ing their backs on home and civilization
and comfort, and going out amid the
squalor of heathenism to relieve it, to
save it, to help it, toiling until they
dropped into their graves, with no appro-
pirate eptaph, when they might have
lived in this country, and lived for them
selves, and lived luxuriously, and been at
last put into brilliant sepulchre. What
delusionl
Yea, this delusion of Christian religion
shows itself in the fact that it goes to those
who are in trouble. Now, it is bad enough
he is prosperous; but this religion comes
to man when he is sick, and says: "You
will be well again after awhile; you are
going into a land where there are no
coughs and no pleurisies and no consump-
tons and no languishing; take courage and
bear up"
Yea, this awful chimera of the Gospel
comes to the poor, and it says to them:
You are on your way to vast estates and
to dividends always declarable." This de-
fusion of Christianity comes to the bereft,
and it talks of reunion before the throne
and of the cessation of all sorrow. And
then to show that this delusion will stop at
absolutely nothing, it goes to the dying bed
and fills the man with anticipations. How
much better it would be for him to have
him die without any more hope than swine
and rats and snakes. That is all. Nothing
more left of him. He will never know any
thing again. Shovel him underl
The soul is only a superior part Of the
body, and when the body disintegrates the
soul disintegrates. humiliation, vacancy,
everlasting blank, oblteration. Why not
present all that beautiful doctrine to the
dying, instead of something with this hoax,
this swindle of the Christian religion, and
filling the dying man with anticipations of
another life, until some in the last hour
have clapped their hands, and some have
shouted, and some have sung, and
some have been SO overweight
with Joy they could only look
ecstatic. Palace gates opening, they
thought; diamond coronets flashing; hands
reckoning; orchestras sounding. Little
children dying, actually believing they saw
their departed parents, so that, although
the little children had been so weak, and
feeble, and sick for weeks, they could not
turn on their dying pillow, at the last, in
paroxysm Of rapture uncomfortable, they
sprang to their feet and shouted: Mother,
catch mel am coming"
And to show the immensely of this de-
fusion, this awful swindle of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, open a hospital and bring
into that ospital the death beds of great
many Christian people and / take Won hv